I do because I far prefer the Android experience for a "daily driver" but having access to iOS is valuable as a "tech" person. Plus, iOS is streets ahead for podcasts. The author said they "never saw that in practice" so just wanted to be a single data point here.. maybe this is far less likely outside of a tech/fomo audience.
I highly recommend getting the Pocket Casts app for Android. In my opinion, it's better than iTunes for podcasts (except for the fact that you have to pay separately for the desktop and mobile clients).
No mention of the iPod classic. I guess not many people bought them.
I absolutely love my classic. It has every song instantly accessible wherever I am. I use it every single day.
It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer curating your music collection, but the reward is a far more permanent collection of music and playlists which acts almost as a time capsule for your emotions. Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of reception, data, record company politics or what you remembered to sync to your phone that week.
I use Apollo + most of my music library on my 64GB sd card in my s4. I have 105GB of music total, so I just put my most played stuff on my phone. I push update it from Clementine.
> It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer curating your music collection,
There's not even that much curating needed with modern storage capacity. SD cards are cheap, large, and so the only limit is how long I wait for FLACs to transcode down to AACs.
> Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of reception, data, record company politics
Exactly. I can't fathom why people are so in love with relying on so many unreliable parts to listen to music.
Getting a smartphone with an SD card slot these days requires some compromise. The iPhone has never had one. Galaxy S6 and Nexus 6 are arguably the current Android flagships setting the standard for quality, and neither of them have SD expansion.
There are people with more than 64GB of music at CD quality who don't want to transcode it down.
I also love my classic (actually and iPod Video). Bought in 2004, the battery has long since died and it lives permanently on its dock. I sincerely wish I could either replace the battery or the whole device with a 200gb beast in the same form factor. I know I could get one used, but the difficulty of servicing them makes that less attractive.
I felt the same way for a very long time, and still have both an iPod Video and Classic to prove it, but what's done it for me is a data plan way bigger than I need and iTunes Match. Obviously that fails to meet one very specific requirement - offline availability - but I do keep a decent subset synced to my iPhone for offline listening, which itself is pretty rare. If anything, I prefer the iPhone's interface for finding stuff deep in my library since I can just type out the name of a track or ask Siri to play it.
Ive bought an headphone amp/dac from FiiO - stuff was cheap, compared to "brands" and it works just great (looks very solid too!), so I'm not suprised they love it
I have, and love, an iPod Classic. I got it ~in 2007. The battery is still pretty great, but there's something wrong with the Hard Drive in it. Certain songs are just trashed, play them on my computer and they're fine. If I delete them and then reload them, they might be fixed, but one or more other songs will be trashed. I tried to do a backup of it, so I could wipe and start anew, but it took more than a day and was not even half way through the backup. Mind you, the thing is not even near full of music. The worst part, for me at least, is I know how to fix it, but I'm afraid that if I take it apart, it's not going to go back together. It's taken quite a beating.
The hard drive in my iPod was dying so I replaced the hard drive with a Tarkan iFlash and SD card. Instant went from a slow clunky 32gb CompactFlash hard drive to a 128gb SD card for storage. It more reliably boots now too.
I would have expected that there were so many old off-contract iPhones floating around these days that they would have pretty much have destroyed the market for new iPods for the kids. I personally have two of them (plus an ancient 40GB iPod pre-classic). One I actually use for various purposes but the other would be a fine kid's iPod. Still, I guess there is enough demand for the scenario you describe.
I bought two iPod touches for my kids. I don't want my kids having an old iPhone. For starters, a new device comes with a warranty and reasonable assurance it hasn't been beat to hell internally. I also don't want my kids inadvertently dialing 911 - they don't need a cell connection (even without a plan) as first graders.
Understand. I was mostly referring to many families having lots of hand-me-downs at this point.
>I also don't want my kids inadvertently dialing 911 - they don't need a cell connection (even without a plan) as first graders.
Genuinely curious. I certainly managed to get to adulthood without a cell phone but I guess I assumed most parents gave their kids some sort of cell phone these days. When do parents think that kids should have at least very basic feature phones these days?
> When do parents think that kids should have at least very basic feature phones these days?
I'd say when they start going out on their own. Letting first graders wander around town unsupervised is unfortunately a good way to get the police to arrest you, and if they're supervised they don't need a phone.
Correct answer, AFAIK. The 7-11 demographic, so to speak ...
And, yes, an iPad mini is the next step. Also, the elephant totally absent from the room because it starved to death due to having its breakfast, lunch and dinner eaten - pocket consoles.
I wish that the iPod were ever available in those storage capacities, but 160GB was as large as they got. Of course, thanks to this [1] fellow, the sky's the limit..
Some older relatives bought me a Shuffle for my birthday a couple of years ago. It actually turned out to be a good gift, because I was always afraid of losing my 100GB MP3 player when exercising or travelling.
I have a few iTouches here for testing, kept at various iOS versions. Much cheaper than buying iPhones. Will probably pick up a new 6G soon, since the 5Gs are getting a bit long in the tooth, and no telling what iOS 9 will do to it.
I'm glad (and actually somewhat surprised) that Apple updated the line, rather than axing it. iPod Touch sales must be minuscule compared to iPhones.
> I'm glad (and actually somewhat surprised) that Apple updated the line, rather than axing it. iPod Touch sales must be minuscule compared to iPhones.
It's possible they're in part a way to use surplus parts from the older iPhone lines. They usually lag a generation behind in their look and specs.
Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need.
I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is. I can clip it onto my clothes while I'm falling asleep in a hostel or whatever. Actually I clip it to my clothes all the time.
I don't understand why it wasn't more popular. I still use it.
I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.
The Nanos from the mid-2000s were pretty solid. I think I still have an 4GB one somewhere that worked the last time I looked.
Perfect for taking to the gym or hiking. An updated version with the same specs would probably be too cheap to produce now, with Flash so dramatically cheaper. Could you build one for $20?
Check out the Sansa Clip. Up to 8GB, should be around $40 now, TINY (1.36 x 2.16 x .6"), good sound, small OLED screen, controls on the front which can be pressed through jeans, small enough to throw into you hood or under your collar or clip to the top of headphones.
Also, mass storage mode so you can drag-and-drop files or set up a script to cp all your newest torrented music to it when you plug it in.
I have one of these. Well, two, because I wrecked one by dropping it in the toilet. They're currently discontinued, but you can still buy refurbished or used ones.
The best part is that it you can install Rockbox. Rockbox is such a beautiful piece of software.
I am fiercely protective about my Sansa Clip. I only paid around 35$ for it, but it's way more valuable to me than that now that they are getting difficult to find.
Sadly the batteries are crap and it dies pretty quickly from sweating, which makes it a bad workout companion. Also a note - the newest Clip Zip with color screen has much worse sound, better to opt for older Clip+.
Obv. if you've found something that works for you then great, but if you're wondering about popularity then honestly your position sounds pretty unusual.
> I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is.
If there's ever a time at which my phone isn't in my pocket, I'm worried already. Especially when travelling.
> The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward
Awkward how? My phone already has a bigger, nicer touchscreen than an affordable dedicated media player would. Honestly general-purpose computers are very good at these things - just like years ago when I first got Winamp and it was easier to use than a physical stereo.
> you'd fill your device's HD.
My phone has a 64gb microSD card. Half of that is 20 days' continuous listening. It's really not an issue.
This seems to be what everyone has taken away from my post. It's awkward to have a wire connected from my ears to the pocket I keep my phone in, generally far away. I want to take my phone out and look at it without a wire being in the way or an audio player running on the home screen.
I can take a earphone out if I want to talk on the phone, or quickly view a youtube video. Without finagling with the audio player.
I can plug my phone in anywhere I want to in the room while going to sleep with my ipod in my ears.
It's just awkward to me, ok. The same way it was awkward when people started trying to use their ipod as a watch. So they think having a wire jutting all the way down their arm isn't awkward, and I do.
> I can take a earphone out if I want to talk on the phone, or quickly view a youtube video. Without finagling with the audio player.
That sounds much more awkward. Pausing music on my phone is at worst pushing one button on the inline control (or on the lock screen), no need to mess with the earphones. And since my phone's playing my music it knows to pause it if I get a call.
> I can plug my phone in anywhere I want to in the room while going to sleep with my ipod in my ears.
But then you'd need to recharge the ipod separately.
> It's just awkward to me, ok.
Sure. But you were saying you didn't understand people preferring their phone.
I had one of those, they were awesome. I still have it in a drawer somewhere, but unfortunately the connection to the screen broke (the screen is just white, all the time) and estimations to fix it cost more than buying a completely new device, so in the drawer it stays.
> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.
You can't run something like Spotify on it without a cell receiver, at which point you've pretty much got a phone.
Conspiracy theory: the form factor was changed because it was too similar to a watch -- and Apple was in the early stages of planning the (much more expensive) Apple Watch.
Notice that the Micky Mouse watch face - now present on the Apple Watch - was only present on that one version of the nano.
I know several people who wore that iPod as a watch - at least one case was explicitly manufactured as a wristband. Got discontinued pretty quick, though
> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.
My primary use of my phone is as a music player. The second biggest use is as a camera. Between those two (and considering a lot of the music is streamed), the device's storage is never a problem.
What about it sounds awkward? To me it's way more awkward to carry a separate device to play music, given that I'm going to be carrying a cell phone anyway.
Just a nitpick here, for me simply having phone and internet counts as 24/7 passive usage because people can call/text/email. It's like a mailbox, I'm always using it.
> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.
So what's the problem with filling up most of the space for music? The only reason I needed storage space in the first place was to put music on it. Everything else (contacts, apps, etc) use up less than 5% of the total used space.
You would expect a well-built, modern (and hackable?) iPod Classic successor (with support for streaming services, but traditional UI) to be a nice Kickstarter idea?
I still have mine, although i don't actually use it as a ipod anymore, but i bought a watch band for it so now it's actually a quite cool watch, worth the 30bucks or whatever they want for it if you want a different watch
Rain shouldn't really affect your smartphone, unless it's poorly built. My Nexus 7 fell into a stream of water, getting completely submerged while turned on, and it didn't even shut off. Opening it up revealed it was completely dry, despite the case being snapped on.
Friends have had similar experiences with their Moto G, a Wiko and a cheap non-branded tablet.
Yeah it's surprising how well built are phones nowadays. I was running/cycling with a Nexus phone which I exchanged yearly and there never were any issues. Then when I got a Garmin FR110, I went for a Sandisk Clip MP3 player, who was dead in one month due humidity/wet conditions. Bought a cheapo Android phone who will stay on Kitkat forever and sticking with that instead.
I love my iPod classic, I had my first one for six years before it died and I immediately went out and bought another. I really hope this one lasts. The main reason I don't like streaming is because a) I have to use my phone storage instead of a dedicated music device and b) we have really shitty data plans in Australia, with exhorbitant prices for minimal GBs. I don't want to use up my entire plan just from streaming music when I have a perfectly good music player that does one job and does it well.
I recently bought the nano 7g, I have a smartphone and a tablet.
It's great for swimming, running and commuting, but the main thing is that I sometimes want something smart and light with me that's not connected to the internet.
The nano fulfills these requirmenets; my steps and speed are monitored, I can do a workout with my Jabra sports, listen to ebooks, podcasts, music, watch boardgame or esperanto instruction video's, view pictures for meditation etc and even read little booklets on it as I convert text to pictures and errants, todo or 'scheduled' lists from org-mode. Theoretically I can use an external microphone with it to record notes or thoughts during the day. In essence it is potentially an ideal accessible and wrist wearable computing device, so I am experimenting with the usability of this in practice. It now is mounted on two 1cm wide velco straps on my left wrist, wirelessly connected with bluetooth headphones.
Internet is overrated anyway, less is more and small is beautiful.
This is exactly why I love my Nano, and I was surprised to see him say he's never sold one to somebody under 50.
The nano is perfect for exercising as it's light and fits in the tiny little pockets on my exercise clothes. I'd much rather use that than put my phone in a big armband.
However, I will say that I wish it had streaming music.
Yes I was surprised too. I've got a Samsung phablet thing, but it's a bit tedious to strap to my arm or thigh... even though I do use it for Zombies Run when working out.
Regarding the lack of streaming music, perhaps subscribe to your favorite musical genre podcasts? For example I have Classic FM, A State of Trance and haven't even looked further as my old school mp3 playlist collection is good enough. And then there is FM reception, old school streaming...
I am actually a proud owner of an iPod Shuffle! It is perfect for long trips! It has no screen thus the battery lasts for 12~15 hours! Even after 2 years and it charges pretty fast (~2 hours).
It only stores 2Gb but since I've concluded that I can't hear the difference between 320 kbps and 128 kbps songs, it can hold a substantial number of songs.
I have an iPod shuffle, and I bought it myself :) But also bought one more as a gift. I use it when going for a run, or when I have to travel a lot. I like it for being simple, very well crafted (like to play with my fingers along its perfectly smooth edges). One drawback is the memory though, only 2GB, or max 4GB for older versions.
I use iPod Touch-es for a corporate app, and have just begun rolling out the first few trial installations.
In May/June we noticed a shortage of iPods, which was kind of scary since we are eventually going to need several hundreds for our users. It is a relief to see that Apple is continuing the iPod Touch product line.
I have an iPod touch and its not very good for audio. Often it doesn't remember where you stopped. You have to take it out and look at the screen to pause it. Despite there being a big redundant button on the front. It requires some proprietary software to load audio onto it, which is difficult to figure out and has some strange quirks.
My BlackBerry Classic (like most BlackBerrys) has a dedicated play/pause button between the volume buttons. It's one of the things I love about it :) I can pause my music without turning on the screen.
I was at an entrepreneur meetup group just this week and we got discussing the iPod. Seeing a lot of teenagers with them and couldn't understand why. Guest from Chicago who does a lot of travelling verified that it wasn't just our local area but nationwide. Guess they've become retro hip again.
Yes, in the Netherlands they were very popular too with pupils in the last grades of primary school and the first grade of secondary school. They are a relatively cheap entry into the iOS ecosystem (with for example popular games) and Apple devices until recently provided status...
1) Battery life. I'm a rather heavy user and my phone tends to only barely last the entire workday and commute before running out (if it lasts at all). Having a separate device for music means I don't need to feel guilty about wasting phone battery when listening to music.
2) Storage. I tend to use very little storage on my phone, mostly due to the fact that I keep my 40+ GB music collection on a separate device. This means I can usually go for the model with the lowest storage for any phone I'm interested in, and not have to limit myself to phones with expandable storage (that seems to be on the way out as a trend).
3) Sound quality. I'm not talking about the placebo-heavy issues that audiophiles concern themselves with. Rather, I use very sensitive IEMs and when listening to music on my phone I can always hear intermittent background noise (I believe this could be interference from the cell radios). I've never had this issue with dedicated players.
In the days of CDs, there were units that would hold ~100 CDs vertically on a turntable, rotate the correct CD into position, grab it with a robotic arm to lay it on a traditional CD reader, and play it. [1]
My grandfather had ~5 of these 100-disc CD changers, fully loaded, in various rooms around the house. Plus wall-to-wall bookshelves, many of them packed with CD cases.
A CD is 700MB of audio. Let's estimate, conservatively, that he owned 800 CDs. That's 70 gigs of audio. He wasn't exceptional in terms of music library size. That's who buys iPod Classic: people with more than 32GB (or recently 64GB) of music who want it all in one player.
iPod Classic also lives basically indefinitely (mine is at least 6 at this point, still works perfectly and the battery life is measured in weeks) and can be operated entirely by feel. Nothing ruins music while falling asleep like having to look at a bright backlit LCD screen to change the song and getting sidetracked into Facebook.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 153 ms ] threadI absolutely love my classic. It has every song instantly accessible wherever I am. I use it every single day.
It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer curating your music collection, but the reward is a far more permanent collection of music and playlists which acts almost as a time capsule for your emotions. Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of reception, data, record company politics or what you remembered to sync to your phone that week.
Anyone know a replacement?
There's not even that much curating needed with modern storage capacity. SD cards are cheap, large, and so the only limit is how long I wait for FLACs to transcode down to AACs.
> Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of reception, data, record company politics
Exactly. I can't fathom why people are so in love with relying on so many unreliable parts to listen to music.
> Exactly. I can't fathom why people are so in love with relying on so many unreliable parts to listen to music.
A phone will do exactly the same thing...
Getting a smartphone with an SD card slot these days requires some compromise. The iPhone has never had one. Galaxy S6 and Nexus 6 are arguably the current Android flagships setting the standard for quality, and neither of them have SD expansion.
There are people with more than 64GB of music at CD quality who don't want to transcode it down.
I felt the same way for a very long time, and still have both an iPod Video and Classic to prove it, but what's done it for me is a data plan way bigger than I need and iTunes Match. Obviously that fails to meet one very specific requirement - offline availability - but I do keep a decent subset synced to my iPhone for offline listening, which itself is pretty rare. If anything, I prefer the iPhone's interface for finding stuff deep in my library since I can just type out the name of a track or ask Siri to play it.
I felt old at first but then I realized mp3's started getting really popular 15 years ago, then I felt old for sure.
>I also don't want my kids inadvertently dialing 911 - they don't need a cell connection (even without a plan) as first graders.
Genuinely curious. I certainly managed to get to adulthood without a cell phone but I guess I assumed most parents gave their kids some sort of cell phone these days. When do parents think that kids should have at least very basic feature phones these days?
I'd say when they start going out on their own. Letting first graders wander around town unsupervised is unfortunately a good way to get the police to arrest you, and if they're supervised they don't need a phone.
And, yes, an iPad mini is the next step. Also, the elephant totally absent from the room because it starved to death due to having its breakfast, lunch and dinner eaten - pocket consoles.
While that may not constitute a viable commercial niche, it does suggest a use case among a tech savvy community.
[1] http://www.tarkan.info
I'm glad (and actually somewhat surprised) that Apple updated the line, rather than axing it. iPod Touch sales must be minuscule compared to iPhones.
It's possible they're in part a way to use surplus parts from the older iPhone lines. They usually lag a generation behind in their look and specs.
http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-si...
Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need.
I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is. I can clip it onto my clothes while I'm falling asleep in a hostel or whatever. Actually I clip it to my clothes all the time.
I don't understand why it wasn't more popular. I still use it.
I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.
Perfect for taking to the gym or hiking. An updated version with the same specs would probably be too cheap to produce now, with Flash so dramatically cheaper. Could you build one for $20?
Also, mass storage mode so you can drag-and-drop files or set up a script to cp all your newest torrented music to it when you plug it in.
The best part is that it you can install Rockbox. Rockbox is such a beautiful piece of software.
I am fiercely protective about my Sansa Clip. I only paid around 35$ for it, but it's way more valuable to me than that now that they are getting difficult to find.
> I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is.
If there's ever a time at which my phone isn't in my pocket, I'm worried already. Especially when travelling.
> The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward
Awkward how? My phone already has a bigger, nicer touchscreen than an affordable dedicated media player would. Honestly general-purpose computers are very good at these things - just like years ago when I first got Winamp and it was easier to use than a physical stereo.
> you'd fill your device's HD.
My phone has a 64gb microSD card. Half of that is 20 days' continuous listening. It's really not an issue.
This seems to be what everyone has taken away from my post. It's awkward to have a wire connected from my ears to the pocket I keep my phone in, generally far away. I want to take my phone out and look at it without a wire being in the way or an audio player running on the home screen.
I can take a earphone out if I want to talk on the phone, or quickly view a youtube video. Without finagling with the audio player.
I can plug my phone in anywhere I want to in the room while going to sleep with my ipod in my ears.
It's just awkward to me, ok. The same way it was awkward when people started trying to use their ipod as a watch. So they think having a wire jutting all the way down their arm isn't awkward, and I do.
That sounds much more awkward. Pausing music on my phone is at worst pushing one button on the inline control (or on the lock screen), no need to mess with the earphones. And since my phone's playing my music it knows to pause it if I get a call.
> I can plug my phone in anywhere I want to in the room while going to sleep with my ipod in my ears.
But then you'd need to recharge the ipod separately.
> It's just awkward to me, ok.
Sure. But you were saying you didn't understand people preferring their phone.
You can't run something like Spotify on it without a cell receiver, at which point you've pretty much got a phone.
No weird wideescreen design and you could control it through your clothes.
Notice that the Micky Mouse watch face - now present on the Apple Watch - was only present on that one version of the nano.
My primary use of my phone is as a music player. The second biggest use is as a camera. Between those two (and considering a lot of the music is streamed), the device's storage is never a problem.
What about it sounds awkward? To me it's way more awkward to carry a separate device to play music, given that I'm going to be carrying a cell phone anyway.
So what's the problem with filling up most of the space for music? The only reason I needed storage space in the first place was to put music on it. Everything else (contacts, apps, etc) use up less than 5% of the total used space.
http://www.shophex.com/vision-metal-watch-band-for-ipod-nano...
If I would use my phone to play music the battery would be dead by noon.
If it rains while im on a run, I only risk 120€ not 500-900€.
Not to mention that an ipod is WAY lighter (12.5-31g) compared to a smartphone (130g). Which makes it less iritating when you carry it in your pocket.
I regularly play music from my phone for the entirety of a 10-12 hour flight without using more than 20% of my phone's battery.
Friends have had similar experiences with their Moto G, a Wiko and a cheap non-branded tablet.
The nano is perfect for exercising as it's light and fits in the tiny little pockets on my exercise clothes. I'd much rather use that than put my phone in a big armband.
However, I will say that I wish it had streaming music.
It only stores 2Gb but since I've concluded that I can't hear the difference between 320 kbps and 128 kbps songs, it can hold a substantial number of songs.
In May/June we noticed a shortage of iPods, which was kind of scary since we are eventually going to need several hundreds for our users. It is a relief to see that Apple is continuing the iPod Touch product line.
I miss my old generic MP3 player.
Could this perhaps be explained by a teenager's relative (price, legal?) difficulty entering into a cell contract?
1) Battery life. I'm a rather heavy user and my phone tends to only barely last the entire workday and commute before running out (if it lasts at all). Having a separate device for music means I don't need to feel guilty about wasting phone battery when listening to music.
2) Storage. I tend to use very little storage on my phone, mostly due to the fact that I keep my 40+ GB music collection on a separate device. This means I can usually go for the model with the lowest storage for any phone I'm interested in, and not have to limit myself to phones with expandable storage (that seems to be on the way out as a trend).
3) Sound quality. I'm not talking about the placebo-heavy issues that audiophiles concern themselves with. Rather, I use very sensitive IEMs and when listening to music on my phone I can always hear intermittent background noise (I believe this could be interference from the cell radios). I've never had this issue with dedicated players.
My grandfather had ~5 of these 100-disc CD changers, fully loaded, in various rooms around the house. Plus wall-to-wall bookshelves, many of them packed with CD cases.
A CD is 700MB of audio. Let's estimate, conservatively, that he owned 800 CDs. That's 70 gigs of audio. He wasn't exceptional in terms of music library size. That's who buys iPod Classic: people with more than 32GB (or recently 64GB) of music who want it all in one player.
iPod Classic also lives basically indefinitely (mine is at least 6 at this point, still works perfectly and the battery life is measured in weeks) and can be operated entirely by feel. Nothing ruins music while falling asleep like having to look at a bright backlit LCD screen to change the song and getting sidetracked into Facebook.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-PD-F908-CD-Changer-Discontinue...